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Is it worth attending that ecommerce conference?

Ecommerce conference season is upon us. In the past few weeks, the Littledata team was at Shop.org in Las Vegas, Paris Retail Week, and the Google Expert Summit in Waterloo, Canada — three very different events in three rather different countries.

Then we also hit up Agile Cambridge and Technology for Marketing in the UK, the UPRISE fest in Dublin, TechDay LA in sunny Los Angeles and the BigCommerce partner summit in Austin. And while we unfortunately couldn’t make ReCharge’s Recur event for the subscription industry, or Hawke Media’s Hawkefest, the ultimate anti-conference, many of our partners and merchants were there and had awesome things to say.

But wait a second. Slow down!

With so many exciting events to potentially attend during what is already one of the busiest times of year for those of us in the industry (Black Friday is just around the corner from a marketer’s perspective), how do you choose?

Is that conference you’ve been debating attending really worth it?

If we’ve learned anything…

Over the years I’ve had a mixed experience with conferences. But with Littledata we’ve found a good rhythm.

Of course it helps that we’re on the cutting edge of new technology, actually using AI and machine learning as opposed to just talking about it, and that we already have major customers around the world, even though we’re technically still a ‘startup’. This gives us a wide range of high-quality speaking and learning opportunities. But at the same time our productive conference experiences haven’t happened by accident, whether for ecommerce or general tech events.

We’ve found such a good conference rhythm — a dance that produces a consistently high ROI on in-person events — by looking closely at our own data on a quarterly and yearly basis.

Our strategy is always evolving, but some stats have been consistent. For example, we discovered that at the right events:

Though we don’t necessarily have a higher win rate for enterprise leads from conferences, the sales cycle is condensed, on average 3x faster from meeting to close. This saves our sales team valuable time chasing down leads, and also helps us improve our product, pitches and processes at a faster rate.

Agencies we meet in person are 4x more likely to refer us a customer within the next 30 days — even if we never did a formal product demo.

What’s your company’s take on conferences? Here are a few insights that might help you get more out of the conference experience, whether that means big tech industry events or smaller, focused meetups.

There is no such thing as a must-attend conference

The great irony with ecommerce conferences is that they tend to be scheduled at what are already busy times for those of us in the industry.

Whether it’s the shows we attended these past 6 weeks that overlapped with everyone getting back to work after summer holidays, or European standbys like NetComm Suisse’s later fall events and One to One in Monaco every March, right after SXSW in Austin, it’s either an embarrassment of riches or — depending on your perspective — a really confusing hodge podge of hard-to-classify opportunities.

There are simply too many choices, and it’s especially hard to decide whether to attend a tech conference or meetup if your company has never attended that particular show before. One thing I love about our industry is that merchants (stores and ecommerce managers) and vendors (apps, platforms, consultants, designers and agencies) are all in the same boat. In short, we have no time for BS. We want events that focus on real information, emerging technologies and human connection.

So how do you decide?

First things first, make your own list. There are a ton of blog posts out there about ‘must attend’ conferences, those ‘not to miss’. Give me a break! Every business is unique, and you’re only as viable as your buyer personas.

So make a list of conferences, events and meetups that might help connect you with your prime customers and best partners. Brainstorm, look online, ask around. Make your own list and plan to review every quarter.

Then once you’ve made that list, on paper or Trello or however you work best, go through the following checklist with as many members of your team as possible, especially if you can bring in decision makers from both Product and Marketing.

A simple checklist

When deciding if you should attend a conference for the first or second time, it’s useful to have a checklist for quick, consistent analysis.

The checklist I use is deceptively simple. It has only 5 indicators.

Would one significant sale pay for itself in terms of customer acquisition cost (CAC)?

If the conference did work out, is it something you would attend every year?

Would it be the right place for you to speak, either now or in the future?

Is this your scene, your community?

Are there companies, merchants, agencies, vendors etc. attending whom you wouldn’t see any other time this year? (Even just one counts, if sufficiently high-value.)

In short, if you can tick all five boxes then you should attend the conference.

If you can only tick four, it’s probably worth attending but needs more debate. If this is the case, then considering point number one in detail — looking at your current LTV/CAC ratio and considering how the conference could help improve or at least maintain it — is essential. For ecommerce tech companies like our own, this generally means one big sale or partnership. For ecommerce sites it can also take the form of discovering new tech (like Littledata, Klickly or ReCharge) that will help increase sales and marketing ROI.

If you can tick all five boxes then you should definitely attend the conference

The checklist works even if you’ve already attended the conference in the past. Just consider point two already covered and proven!

If you’re in the ecommerce space, definitely consider platform-specific conferences. Shopify and Magento have regular events and meetups around the world, and word on the street is that BigCommerce will be really ramping up their local partner events in 2019.

Shopify Unite has consistently been that rare conference that ticks all the boxes for us here at Littledata, but that doesn’t mean we’re ignoring others that only tick four. We’ve cast our net wide (using the checklist of course) and are still seeing results.

Across the board remember this: success at a conference almost never comes in the form of expected outcomes. Yes, the best outcomes will be aligned with your sales and marketing goals, but sometime the biggest benefits will not be clear for 3, 6 or even 12 months down the line. That’s why we do quarterly and yearly reviews of all in-person activities, from networking events to large conferences. I suggest you do the same.

Most importantly, have fun! Gone are the days of boring trade shows. Show up. Make connections. And if we’re there too, come say hi! Maybe nobody can make analytics sexy, but we at least promise to make them useful.

And usefulness is a good place to start…

Ari

Although best known around the office for annoying our coffee-industry customers with requests for free samples, Ari also happens to lead marketing and business development for Littledata and run our US operations.

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So you've got your new sales plan in action and you've set up unique goals in Google Analytics. Are they tracking what you think they're tracking? Are you sure they're giving you reliable data?
If you've audited your analytics setup, you might have noticed any number of incorrect audit checks about how you've set up custom events for your Google Analytics (GA) goals. Goals are used to make important business decisions, such as where to focus your design or advertising spend, so it's essential to get accurate data about them.
In this quick video we cover common issues with setting up Google Analytics goals, including:
Tracking pageviews rather than completed actions
Selecting the wrong match type
Inconsistent naming when tagging marketing campaigns
Filters in your GA view rewriting URLs (so what you see in the browser is different from what you see in GA)
Issues with cross-domain tracking
In GA, a goal is any type of completed activity on your site or app. GA is a remarkably flexible platform, so you can use it to measure many different types of user behaviour. This could be visitors clicking a subscribe button, completing a purchase, signing up for membership -- known as 'conversion goals' -- or other types of goals such as 'destination goals', when a specific page loads, and 'duration goals', when a user spends over a particular amount of time on a page or set of pages.
That all sounds well and good, but trouble comes if you simply set up goals and then trust the data they give you in GA, without double-checking to make sure that data's consistent and reliable.
We hope you find the video useful. And don't despair -- even a little extra time spent on your GA setup can yield awesome results. Sign up for the Littledata app to audit your site for free, and let us know if you've experienced other common issues with setting up goals in GA.

Our European team had a fantastic time presenting Littledata's ecommerce analytics technology at this year's Techsylvania conference. But we weren't just there to speak, we were also there to listen, learn and be inspired. Here are some of our core takeaways from the 2018 event.
If your mindset is set on innovation, Techsylvania is the place for you. It's the leading technology event in Eastern Europe for a reason - tech enthusiasts and business innovators come together in a spirit of collaboration and friendly competition to connect, hack and share ideas.
What we learned
Edward Upton, CEO: I learned so much from pitching at the Startup Avalanche competition at Techsylvania. The competition attracted startups from all over Europe and Asia, and Littledata was honoured to be chosen for the finals. After a few days of rehearsing the pitch and refining the slides, with intensive coaching from the Risky Business team, I have a much better idea of what investors want to hear - and how to communicate it succinctly.
Hearing how Intercom uses speed of product development as a competitive advantage made me remember how our (already Agile) process could be improved
Aside from the pitch competition, I listened to some of the great speakers from across the industry. My favorite was from Rich Archbold, a technology leader at Intercom. Hearing how they use speed of product development as a competitive advantage made me remember how our (already Agile) process could be improved. Yet, the greatest learning came from talking to founders of many interesting tech companies, some based in Cluj and others with growing offices here.
Rares Ionescu, QA Guru: Techsylvania was a blast! I was especially impressed by Ralph Simon, the chief executive of Mobilium Global, a visionary with a vast experience in the entertainment world. He is known as the founder of modern mobile industry, also referred to as the "Father of the Ringtone" making a lot of trending musical references during his talk. The speech was comprehensive on building a successful start-up ecosystem.
Florina Vintan, Analytics Superstar: I was impressed by the number of high-level attendees with strong technical backgrounds. I most enjoyed the conversation on Digital Transatlantic Bridges by Peter Gersak (IBM), Frederic Boulanger (Macadamian), Pat Sheridan (Modus Create) and Lucas Roh (Bigstep). The chat revolved around companies that established offices in different parts of the world to break down the transatlantic barriers. In case you didn’t know, Littledata breaks down those barriers every day with offices in London, New York and Cluj-Napoca!
Bianca Dihoiu, Customer Advocate: The conference vibe was amazing, people seemed excited to be there and discuss tech stuff with their fellow enthusiasts. The talk that I enjoyed most was by Ashley Carroll from Social Capital. It focused on product management best practices and helped me to visualize our own product management more clearly. As a customer research at Littledata, I bridge the gap between Product and Support, so this was a perfect fit!
Elisabeta (Bety) Crisan, Finance Pro: As an account manager, I found Luke Mawbey’s speech on money laundering the most appealing. The Head of Technology at Comply Advantage talked about a future in technology that will automatically fight financial crime. In the breaks between the conferences we managed exchange a few words on account issues and I learned some useful tips and tricks.
Ioana Botian, Marketing Rockstar: Techsylvania was a vibrant event highlighted by the sharing of a lot of valuable information! I loved the Startup Avalanche pitches where startups had a chance to present their unique ideas. We were represented by Edward Upton, founder of Littledata, who charmed the audience with his charisma and insights about the many ways that fixing your analytics can lead to higher revenue -- especially with our smart automation like an analytics audit and automated reporting.
I loved the Startup Avalanche pitches where startups had a chance to present their unique ideas.
I also attended a mind-blowing conversation between Anda Gansca, CEO and Co-Founder of Knotch, and Katherine Manderfield, Director of Content Strategy at The New York Times about the Future of Advertising. The panel was a real eye-opener for me that made me rethink my strategy as a marketer.
Alexandra Dimitriu, Analytics Maven: For me, Techsylvania was highlighted by great questions, lots of ideas and an amazing atmosphere. I had a chance to meet many passionate people that are concerned with the future in technology and are willing to make a difference in the world. My favorite speech was the one from IVCBOX. They illustrated how successfully connecting with customers can drive conversions and increase sales -- all things we're passionate about here at Littledata. What a great event!
David Pascu, Biz Dev Guru: I had the chance to network with various representatives of Romanian tech companies and gather knowledge about their business and revenue drivers. Most companies admitted they are facing great difficulties when it comes to talent acquisition, so more and more are starting to invest in internship programmes.
With developers in high demand here, more and more Eastern European tech companies are investing in internship programmes
Having the chance to hear various experts talk about their experience in starting or managing a company encouraged me to push for roadmaps ruthlessly oriented to success, as these days the key for success in our field is to build up processes oriented and matured to have the most impact with the least drain on resources.
Gabriel Bira, Galactic Overlord of Code: Although I started out sceptical about yet another “tech conference”, my opinion quickly took a U-turn. The conference coupled professionals describing an exponential progress curve of the Eastern European country in the world of tech. I had the rare opportunity of attending a speech from a local maverick, a 19-year-old Storyheap entrepreneur, Sebastian Dobrincu. The presentation revealed many insights for me on how to build a successful company from scratch.
I also attended a technical event, held by a representative of Slack, Jeremy Apthorp. He presented us Electron, an open source framework that allows creative applications in JavaScript, HTML and CSS to build cross-app platform at low costs.
A final thought
Techsylvania was a perfect mix of tech enthusiasts, developers and entrepreneurs. A true centre of innovation and inspiration.
If you or someone you know is looking to join one of the hottest startups in Cluj, I have good news. We're hiring! Check out our open positions and read about one of our newest employee's first design sprint.
We can't wait for next year's conference. See you there?